The Ubuntu One music store and free software for profit

“One of the features expected with the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04
release is the Ubuntu One Music Store (UOMS). The UOMS is a
mechanism by which Ubuntu users can purchase songs in the MP3
format, with some of the revenue going to support Canonical. These
songs are evidently compressed at a relatively high bit rate and
lack any sort of DRM or watermarks. Support for the UOMS has been
integrated into the Rhythmbox music player, with support for other
players expected in the future. Discussion of this new feature has
been relatively subdued thus far, but developers elsewhere are
beginning to take notice and ask some questions about the extent to
which the UOMS should be supported.

“Recently, Amarok hacker Jeff Mitchell went to the openSUSE
community to ask them how they felt about the UOMS. In particular,
he would like to know how openSUSE might react if Canonical were to
push its Rhythmbox changes back upstream – which has not yet
happened, as of this writing. Would openSUSE be willing to ship a
Rhythmbox plugin which existed for the purpose of funding another
distributor? How, asked Jeff, do we feel about free software which
is designed to make money for others?

“To an extent, this question has been answered for years: both
Rhythmbox and Amarok include support for Magnatune’s music store,
and distributors have shipped that support. This plugin generates
income – a significant amount, evidently – for Magnatune, which
kicks a portion back to Rhythmbox and Amarok. So simply operating a
for-profit music store is not, itself, reason for concern or for
exclusion from free music player applications. The Ubuntu music
store appears to be looked at differently, though, for a couple of
reasons, one of which may hold more water than the other.”

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